Interviewing ... wow. Just wow. Can I stop there? I'd feel totally okay with that because to some extent I feel that my experience is something I can't put entirely into words, but I won't.
I'd guess that my interview was probably fairly different from those conducted by my fellow students. I essentially had someone approach me and offer to discuss a very personal subject with me, which I was very interested to learn more about. The individual I interviewed was eager to talk to me about it, very open, and even verbose in terms of simply giving me information and answering questions I didn't even know to ask, although of course I approached the discussion with some questions prepared. Being that it was an extremely personal topic, I didn't try to probe too far. I usually employed the semi-verbal ("Mmhmm?") and silent tools to allow information to flow. And oh boy, did it flow.
I won't be going into the details of how the discussion went, because I just put all of that in my methods practice assignment. But I did learn a lot, and since I'm thinking in blurbs, this is going to come out in a list.
1. If I were going to do this assignment again, for the purposes of the assignment, I would probably seek someone out with my own particular topic in mind. Although this one was great, extremely enlightening, and very easy for me, if I wanted to get good practice probing, this was not the interview to conduct. I barely had to do anything ... mostly just sit there and let my interviewee speak. I barely had to use any of the probing techniques, so I didn't get a ton of practice there. All that being said, I think in some ways probing is a lot more natural than we think it is.
2. I came to the interview with a few questions written down, but since we were talking about a subject that I didn't know a lot about, there were questions that I didn't know I wanted to ask. Those came out in the course of the interview, and so it was very important that I let my interviewee talk rather than pushing forward with an agenda of questions. I wouldn't have got such good information if I had tried to get quick, simple answers to the questions that I came with.
3. It was very important that I approached this interview with an extremely open mind, because closed-mindedness would not only have prevented me from getting such a great understanding of the subject, and because it probably would have been offensive to my interviewee. My willingness to accept the information that was coming to me without being judgmental or jumping to conclusions helped me to build rapport with my interviewee over the course of the discussion, and led the conversation to much deeper and more meaningful subjects.
4. It was important that I treated the subject matter appropriately. There were times when it was appropriate to laugh and times when I needed to be very serious. Although I was the interviewer, I took cues from my interviewee as to when it was okay to be lighthearted, so as not to be offensive.
5. It was important for me not to get personally involved in the subject of the interview, or bring my own opinions to the table. I had to take a moment and set aside my beliefs and feelings, and for a few minutes allow myself to be fully immersed in what was being said to me. I tried to look at things from my interviewee's perspective.
6. As interviewer, it was important to lead the conversation, and not let my interviewee take the reins. Although my interviewee's answers did lead me to questions I needed to ask, it was very important that I retained the role of interviewer, that I directed the course of the interview.
All in all, I suspect that this interview was not a lot like interviews I'll be doing in the field. People are not going to approach me and essentially offer to discuss their beliefs and opinions with me. They probably will not be so eager to share information, and require such limited probing. Ultimately, it will probably be a lot more difficult than my experience ended up being (although I certainly would love it to be as easy as it was).
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